On May 18, 2021, Logitech launched Logitech Scribe, a tool that wants to restore a place to the whiteboard that equips most of the classrooms, including in the context of online or hybrid education.Concretely, Logitech Scribe is a camera that we fix above the table, and which films it.It connects to the computer from which the videoconference takes place, and the teacher can then use his usual camera when he speaks, and switch to the Logitech Scribe camera when he wishes to demonstrate on the board and share his content to the participantson line.

Film a whiteboard, a technical challenge

If the principle seems simple, it is the reading quality of the table in video that makes this special tool.Because the company Logitech is based on the concrete problems that we encounter when we try to film a whiteboard with a classic camera: trapeze effect, reflections, invisible features, framing too tight or not enough, professor who hides the content ... and forremedy it, the company has mobilized artificial intelligence.

Thus, the camera, placed just above the table, automatically detects its surface and corrects the trapezoid effect.It also acts on the readability of the content: "White will be very white, and the contrasts accentuated", details Gonzalo Frasquet, before-sales engineer in Logitech.Palliating very concrete problems: "This allows remote participants to see what is written on the board, even when you use clear or somewhat worn pens for example".Same spirit for another feature: the transparency of the speaker to always leave the visible content."For example, a math teacher who wants to talk about a formula he wrote on the board can designate her with his finger.But he will not hide the formula, and will be seen in the background, ”explains Gonzalo Frasquet.Third technology, the possibility of using additional content such as post-it: there too, they are not only detected, but also made readable by an automatic contrast adjustment.In the end, all these small adjustments lead to a readability of the equivalent table for online learners and for those in face -to -face.

Adapt digital to uses, not the other way around!

A smart tool therefore, but which is also very easy to use.Based on the whiteboard that already equips the rooms, Logitech Scribe allows to reproduce online teaching as it is practiced in theaters - and not to force teachers to adapt their methods to technical constraints related to digital.

In terms of handling, Logitech Scribe is in line with the products offered by the company: “Before designating complex products, we always start from simple questions: for example, when we enter a room, thatDo we have to do an online meeting?From this user route, a product is created, rather than creating an object to which the user must adapt.[…] In our research and development, we always keep in mind that a end user is not a person who has a technical profile, "says Gonzalo Frasquet.

This simplicity is therefore found in the design and the installation of Logitech Scribe, with a sleek camera that sets up with four screws, connects to a classic socket (which can be far from the table thanks to large cables),Then connects, always in wired, via a USB socket on the teacher's computer - like a conventional camera.During the course, he just has to switch from his classic camera to that of the painting, as he would to share his screen.

Repeat in the historic whiteboard

This tool, developed for two years at Logitech, finds all its meaning with the health crisis.Especially since it happens when the multiplication of digital tools also showed its limits: “Two years ago, our observation was that products like interactive or digital white tables that were in schools or businesses wereunusual.They are filled with intelligence, but are also complex to use and manipulate ... We realized that, often, the user actually just needed to do patterns from time to time.In the end, it is useless to have as many features, if you only use 10 %, "sums up Gonzalo Frasquet.

This is how the company had the idea of overthrowing the paradigm and of "reviving this historic whiteboard" to reuse it in a collaborative mode, with videoconferencing tools - giving birth to Logitech today.And thus allowing those who intervene in online or hybrid classes, but also in meetings or in professional training, to reconnect with traditional, more visual - methods that have largely proven themselves for learning, memorizationand the synthesis of information.

Weka writing